Amish bury children after school killings

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

NICKEL MINES, United States (AFP) — Amish families in mournful parades of horse-drawn buggies took part in the funerals of four schoolgirl victims of a gunman who went on a sexual-fantasy-fuelled killing rampage at their school. As four of the five young girls killed Monday were laid to rest, tales of selfless heroism emerged of one victim who reportedly asked killer Charles Roberts to "shoot me first," to save her classmates.

But the grief looked set to deepen, as US media reports said one critically wounded schoolgirl had been taken off life support in hospital and brought back to her spartan Pennsylvania home to die. The reclusive Amish sect, which disdains trappings of the modern world, turned in on itself, as hundreds of mourners gathered at three separate services in...